JURORS in the Nikitta Grender murder trial heard her mother’s account of the last time she saw her daughter alive yesterday.

Marcia Grender’s statement was read out by prosecutor Gregg Taylor QC as she sat in the public gallery with her partner, Miss Grender’s father, Paul Brunnock, her late daughter’s boyfriend Ryan Mayes, 18, and friends and family.

Mr Mayes’ cousin, Carl Whant, 27, of no fixed address, is on trial at Newport Crown Court charged with murder, child destruction, rape and arson. He denies the charges.

Miss Grender, 19, was eight-and-a- half months pregnant when her body was found in the burned-out bedroom of the Broadmead Park flat she shared with Mr Mayes, in the early hours of February 5 last year.

Her mother’s statement said Miss Grender came round to her parents’ home on February 4, 2011, at around 6.50pm. She was wearing pyjamas, as she often did during her pregnancy as they were comfortable.

Miss Grender said in her statement that she and Mr Brunnock would see their daughter, known to her close friends as ‘Kitta, most days as she would come round when they got home from work in the evening.

The jury heard Miss Grender stayed at her parents’ house for around 40 minutes before telling them she was going to take Missy, her pet dog, home before spending the night “just chilling” with friend Jenna Allman.

In her statement, Miss Grender touched upon her daughter’s relationship with Whant.

She said: “I know Nikitta did not like him, she didn’t like the fact he didn’t seem to care about his partner and children.”

The jury were told Mr Mayes had lost his phone, so Miss Grender would try to keep in touch with him by sending messages to Whant, but he would not pass them on.

Miss Grender said her daughter “did not like the fact whenever Carl Whant said ‘jump’ Ryan [Mayes] would.”

‘Missed opportunities’ in CCTV round-up

DS GARY Jones told the court about the CCTV strategy set out in the aftermath of Miss Grender’s death.

Officers were sent out across the city to find potential CCTV cameras which could have captured the movements of Whant he outlined in his witness statement to police.

DS Jones said the areas covered by Whant were divided into three zones initially, later expanded to six, with different officers charged with covering each zone.

It was their job to find out which premises had working CCTV which showed the roads said to have been taken by Whant, as well as the pubs and clubs he visited the night before Miss Grender was killed. They had to visit the relevant premises to ensure footage could be retained and collected by police.

Defence barrister Christopher Kinch said this process lacked urgency as some premises with CCTV cameras were not visited until February 18, including the BT building in Queenshill, by which time the footage had been overwritten, although Mr Kinch admitted vehicles caught on that building’s CCTV could not be made out.

Although DS Jones said this branch of the investigation did not lack urgency, he added: “There were some opportunities missed, which is very regrettable.”